Winger was hired by the Cavaliers in 2005. He was the manager of basketball operations and chief legal counsel for the team. He also filled a role of salary cap expert, which was primarily Rich Cho’s role with the Thunder.

Winger’s education: He achieved his undergraduate degree from the University of Miami in 2002, went to Toledo Law School until 2004 and then finished and achieved his juris doctorate from the University of Maryland in 2005.

Winger is a fan of RealGM. In an interview with Darren Rovell of CNBC, he said, “In trade discussions internally and externally, it creates options for us in aggregating salaries. So rather than brainstorming and asking the question, ‘does this work?’ the software’s functionality displays all of the deals that work based on certain parameters we might select such as positions, players, salaries, etc.”

His first (and only other) job was working as an assistant to agent, author and superlawyer Ron Shapiro at the Shapiro Negotiations Institute.

After Danny Ferry left, Winger took on a larger role. He was strictly the team’s legal counsel, but started talking to agents, working on contracts and earned more responsibility under new GM Chris Grant. You know, kind of like an assistant GM or something.

This means his role with the Thunder must be more significant. He was becoming an extremely valuable asset to Cleveland as they tried to navigate under a new front office leader and rebuild a franchise. So for him to leave, his position with the Thunder is clearly heavier.

He fits the Thunder front office profile. He’s young, sharp and upcoming. He’s right at 30 and is moving quickly up the front office ranks. This new spot with the Thunder is surely a big leap for him.

Expect Dan Gilbert’s comic sans letter to come on Winger soon. “I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED WINGER WINS ONE IN OKLAHOMA CITY.”

I met personally with Winger at a rather impressive Board of Governors meeting. The kid has moxy. Smart as can be, and a great hire for any NBA executive team. Presti found the right man for the job. I admired Mike's integrity and enthusiasm for winning. He cut his teeth in Cleveland, but will earn his stripes in Oklahoma. His work in Cleveland was impressive to say the least, outstanding considering the circumstances he worked under for the past year. His work in Oklahoma should be even more impressive.

All the posters here with zero knowledge of this guy will be licking their own jealous asses when he is a GM by the time he is 35 years old. Presti makes a habit of hiring first class executives. The story of his arrival in Oklahoma speaks for itself. Good management makes a habit of hiring good executives. Enough said.

@shiki=4 seasonswell with yao out probably til January, i feel like they will be the same as they were since the trade deadline.

with the wolves im thinking that flynn is out for awhile, they lost al jefferson who was a good scoring big man. they traded sessions away as well, and teaching the triangle to all the new players will be tough.

@Sammythey had the same record, just the tiebreaker, but yeah portland if healthy could be good. Yao probably wont play til january.

I guess the other thing is are you ranking by how good they are or record? mine was more record, i thought about divisional play as well. ill add my expected wins too. though i didnt balace them so it might not add up.

@Sammyyeah i agree about amare, i think his numbers will be slightly worse without nash. It will be interesting to see if they start turiaf and amare together or amare and randolph. They have no bench really and so i dont expect great things out of them

Also, Portland players lost like 13 million games to injury last season and they still ended up with a better record than us. Even if everything doesn't go perfectly for Portland, I think they still have a good chance at a top 4 seed as long as they're not struck by lightning twice.

@SammyPortland would have to be extremely lucky to actually get fully healthy, and sustain it. Their roster is riddled with injury-prone players. Spurs having some of the same problems given their age, but the addition of Splitter should help a ton.

I wouldn't be surprised if Portland or SA finished anywhere between 2-8, whereas I wouldn't be shocked if Houston missed out on the playoffs. But if Yao is playing, they should be a lock. I don't think Houston could get a top 4 seed in any situation though.

Houston and Portland, and, to a lesser extent, San Antonio were the hardest to rank. If fully healthy, Portland would be #4 easily and Houston would probably be #5. Just so hard to predict full health for either of those squads though.

Pretty high for Memphis too. I expect them to prove a considerable amount, especially with the bench depth now. But I don't see them finishing above the Suns, nor do I see them as a better team than Milwaukee. They're young and talented, but they've gotta put it all together for a full season before I buy in.

Also have serious doubts that Houston becomes top 10 league-wide if Yao ends up missing significant time. Portland still has a lot of question marks. I think if Chandler stays healthy, Dallas should be the favorite for no. 2 in the West.-

@f5alconThat's a good point about the Knicks. I put them where I did because I don't think Amare is gonna do much more than Lee did, but I didn't consider the role players they got from GS as much as I should have.

i dont see how you put the knicks below the cavs after they added amare, felton, randolph, azibuike and turiaf. With all the changes to the raptors, the knicks are probably 2nd best in that division. For the most part though i could see why you put the teams where you did.

yeah thats true, i mean at best they are 4th best in the division, and that would mean regression by the bobcats, but i could see them winning 30 games this year, but the eastern conference is better now.

i could see the east looking like thisorlandomiamibostonchicagoatlantaMilwaukeeNew YorkCharlotteIndianaPhillywashingtondetroitnew jerseycleveland

While I don't like Ferry's tenure with the Cavs, they have made lots and lots of complex trades and signings during his tenure. The Cavs recently have been one of the most active (and winning) teams in the league. Winger's job was to find trades and signings that worked under the cap and he's gotten plenty of experience doing that under Ferry's direction. Ferry's mandate was for the Cavs to win immediately, at any cost, he wasn't concerned about preserving or creating cap space.

Winger's probably not as brilliant as Rich Cho, who designed a computerized player evaluation system that was praised as innovative. You should build trade software better than RealGM, not lease their software.

@Jax Raging Bile Duct@Royce YoungI agree with both of you guys and had kind of assumed his duties with the team were more legal and basketball related. And yes he deserves the benefit of the doubt. More specifically, Presti deserves the benefit of the doubt due to him having a history of putting great people/pieces around him as well as having his finger on the pulse of the Thunder's cap situation. I was more just stating that my initial reaction of hiring someone who was part of that situation in Cleveland doesn't make me wanna go outside and do some back flips, but in Presti we trust. I'd be surprised if Winger didn't do a great job.

I don't want to be overly negative, so let me preface by saying I'm sure Winger had little actual say in decisions. Isn't it a little odd though that this guy is so highly regarded in his role when the Cavs from 2005-present probably didn't make a single cap-conscious decision outside of extending Lebron?

@BradFrom my understanding, he was a part of trying to correct it. When he originally was hired, he was focused on basketball operations duties. But as his time went on, he shifted into the cap and legal stuff.

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[…] sure many fans, heck me included, have very little knowledge of who Winger is or what he did, but here’s a piece that might clear it up. So should we worry? It’s too early to tell especially with the little information out there […]

[…] sure many fans, heck me included, have very little knowledge of who Winger is or what he did, but here’s a piece that might clear it up. So should we worry? It’s too early to tell especially with the little information out there […]